Govt grants Nautilus new licence

NAUTILUS Minerals says the Government has granted a new two-year exploration licence to the company which include new targets.
Nautilus in a market release said this would allow the company to conduct exploration activities in the southeast Bismarck Sea.
The exploration licence EL2537 covers 2558sq km, including the same prospective geology that hosts Nautilus’ Solwara 1 deposit.
The area was selected based on reconnaissance sampling and surveys in 2017.
Nautilus acknowledged assistance in this area by the PNG Geological Survey.
Nautilus Minerals chief executive Mike Johnston said granting of this exploration license was “great news”.
“Work done in the area by the company has identified numerous exploration targets, with similar geology to our seafloor massive sulfide deposits found at Solwara 1,” he said.
“The work completed last year reconfirms the significant exploration potential for deep sea minerals over expansive yet unexplored metallogenic provinces.
“Our team has worked very hard to improve exploration efficiency: Covering larger areas at lower costs, and the results at hand show that this approach is bearing fruit.”
Meanwhile, subject to receiving additional funding under the company’s previously-announced bridge loans and potential credit facility transaction, Nautilus aims to test and progress these targets as soon as practicable.
This is to advance the company’s plans of increasing its current resource portfolio to support future seafloor mining operations.
According to the company, PNG is renowned for hosting large mineral deposits and the same tectonics
that drove mineralisation at the
nearby Bougainville and Lihir deposits, is also believed to drive seafloor mineralisation at Solwara 1 and 12.
This places this exploration license in a favourable location.
The company said it looked forward to sharing the results once exploration commenced.